scaryblog

Continuing my trip back through the 1994 album charts. 25/09/94 : Kylie Minogue -  Kylie Minogue Our eighth visit with Kylie (bringing her level with Taylor) and I believe this is one of her better ones, but can't say I'm exactly looking forward to it. Well, it's definitely not one of the worst ones. The first track, "Confide In Me", is the one I knew best and it's quite representative of the rest of the album because it's a lot more grown-up than her previous work ("look Ma - it's got strings on it!"),  her voice is surprisingly strong and it  has a pretty decent tune to it. It actually feels like Madonna could have put this on Ray Of Light and it would have fitted in nicely - which is definitely a compliment. However, it is a bit light on content and that's even before you realise it's 5:51 long - there's a lot of repetition there. And it definitely seems like she believes "longer is more" because the shortest track o...

  "I'm on the guest list" Yup, another work freebie - but I was pleased this one came up because I'd caught NewDad's debut album when it hit the dizzy heights of #43 in the charts and declared it album of the week because it's "shoegazey indie with a female vocalist so it's right up my street". And it was also at O2 Kentish Town which is a fine venue and far and away the easiest one for me to get to (except for the mighty Alban Arena, of course). First up, The Cardinals, who I had, unsurprisingly, heard nothing about but they certainly know how to make a first impression - but not in a good way. They strode on stage and started their first song with confidence but, in the centre of the stage where you'd expect the lead singer to be, they have - a tambourine player. "Look lads, I know I might not have the talent of you lot - but it's my van so if I say I go in the middle, then that's where I'm going". I'm sure he...

Continuing my trip back through the 1994 album charts. 02/10/94 : Protection -  Massive Attack Our fourth visit with Massive Attack and I think this is my favourite album of theirs, despite most people either declaring Blue Lines or Mezzanine to be their masterpiece. It's also one we owned, giving us a pleasing three in a row and taking us to five for the year. As you'd expect from a Massive Attack album there's a decent level of musicality throughout with some lovely bass whilst still maintaining a very clean sound (which is something that plenty of people don't manage).  And then it all comes down to the guest vocalist that Massive Attack decided to get involved on each track - and we have three or four used on this album.  Nicolette and Horace Andy both have interesting voices and do a decent enough job, but they're somewhat overshadowed by the other two artists called on here. It's not entirely clear whether Tricky actually counts as a guest artist or was ...

Continuing my trip forward in time through the album charts 24/10/25 : From The Pyre - The Last Dinner Party Our second visit with TLDP - I liked the last one and I've enjoyed catching them at a couple of festivals as well, so I have no reason to suspect I won't enjoy this one as well. Yeah, I enjoyed it - but I'm not entirely sure how I'd describe it. Last time I said they'd been listening to their mum's Siouxsie Sioux albums without directly copying the sound - but this time around I'd say they've been checking out her old Kate Bush stuff. They've avoided the worst of the quirk and it's got a beautifully clean sound to it with some impressive musicianship - but just don't ask me to describe it any more than that. So just check it out and see if you can do any better. We're at #2 with a new entry in the chart this week and the rest of the top five are  Taylor Swift  (of course - the charts are so broken at the minute),  Olivia Dean  (da...

Continuing my trip back through the 1994 album charts. 09/10/94 : No Need To Argue -  The Cranberries Our second visit with The Cranberries and this is another one we owned (four for the year already) and I remember it initially being a bit of a shock compared with their debut, but it was a grower after I'd given it a chance - but I've not listened to it in a verrrry long time. So I'm interested to see what I think now (and it's mad to think Dolores has not been with us for seven years now). They definitely lead us in gently with "Ode To My Family" and a couple of other relatively gentle tracks - and then we're hit by "Zombie", which certainly took some getting used to but I like it now. Apart from "The Daffodil's Lament" which I also like, I didn't specifically remember any other tracks but I enjoyed the album (particularly the title track) and didn't find it quite as jarring as I was expecting, with more variety on there t...

Starting my trip down The Guardian's  Top 50 TV Shows of 2024 #3 : One Day  Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall breathed new life into David Nicholls’s bestselling novel, which follows an unlikely university friendship that, over two decades, finally becomes a relationship. Mod and Woodall quietly sizzled as Emma Morley and Dexter Mayhew, and the frustration became almost unbearable as we urged them to “get it on already!” But their long journey was what made the eventual payoff so great, and we loved watching them become the adults – and lovers – they grew to be. Of course, though fans of the book knew it was coming, <spoiler>. A love story for the ages – made even better by a banging 90s soundtrack. Skipping over Shōgun (#1 here and in Empire) and Baby Reindeer (#2 here, #15 in Empire) brings us to this and I've read the book (which I liked), seen the film (who knew that giving Anne Hathaway a Yorkshire accent wouldn't work? But I'm not sure I knew Jodie Whittaker play...

Continuing my trip back through the 1994 album charts. 16/10/94 : Dog Man Star -  Suede This is our third album visit with Suede (along with two gig visits) and this is probably the album that really kicked off my interest in the band - it's one I owned (taking us to three for the year) and listened to loads, although I've not revisited it in ages. Yeah - I still like this and remembered most of the songs. Lots of albums aim to have a good short opening track and they put pressure on themselves here by calling it "Introducing The Band" - but they pull it off and then segue nicely into "We Are The Pigs" which has a proper swagger to it. And the rest of if is also good with a decent variety across the album with the faster ones like "New Generation" allowing the band to rock out and the slower ones like "Daddy's Speeding" allowing Brett to show off his voice (it's really very decent on this album). But the pinnacle for me combines t...

Continuing my trip back through the 1994 album charts. 23/10/94 : The Return Of The Space Cowboy -  Jamiroquai This is our third visit with the cheeky funksters and I'm expecting to enjoy it for a bit but then decide that a whole album of it is just a bit too much funk for me. Actually, I think that, in some ways, they get away with it because there's more variety than I was expecting - we've got slow funk, medium funk and fast funk (and yes, the didgeridoo is back). But. I didn't actually enjoy it all that much - it was fine, but kinda just drifted past me. "Space Cowboy" was the only one I knew but I really didn't need 6:25 of it - track lengths are definitely an issue here. Only two tracks (out of eleven) come in at less than five minutes and the opening track "Just Another Story" goes on for 8:49 - just because they're having a good time (and it's not always clear they are) doesn't mean we are. I don't think this is a bad albu...

The journey concludes with some oddities... Rarities (1998–2017) (2017) They may be rare, but some of these are also decidedly odd 1. The Village Green Preservation Society This is a perfectly acceptable version (if a bit lifeless) but it's SUCH a English song that you have to wonder why she picked it - it's certainly no Kate Rusby version, although I'm not such a fan of the original Kinks version ). I also don't like this song because it rhymes "society" with "society" in too many places. 2. Too Long At The Fair This is a Joel Zoss song, who I've never heard of but he's made three albums in '75, '08 and'15 And this is a perfectly fine song, but completely inessential. 3. Order 1081 This is a David Byrne song - who I have heard of! This is off Here Lies Love, his 2010 album which is a rock musical based around the life of Imelda Marcos - and I never realised it was all guest singers, so I might check it out. It's quite a pecul...

Continuing my trip back through the 1994 album charts. 30/10/94 : Youthanasia -  Megadeth Lordy that's a contrived title but whatever it means (surely it's not literal?), I'm very much not expecting to like it. Well, I don't like it - but it was a lot more bearable than I was expecting. It's just hard rock with some very decent guitar playing involved which doesn't get too grating, so that was a pleasant surprise. However, on first listen, to my uncultured ears, the songs all sound exactly the same - I did notice some were slower, but they could quite easily have been the same song just slowed down. So I just got bored with the whole thing I'm afraid - feel free to tell me I'm wrong, but I can assure you I don't care :-) The album cover reminds me of Teletubbies, but I'm not sure that's quite the effect they were after. We're at #6 with a new entry in the chart this week on the start of a brief four week run with this being as high as it ...